GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 777028
Can't install Steam client with gnome-software
Last modified: 2018-01-24 17:25:24 UTC
Whenever I try installing the native Steam client with gnome-software (under Fedora 25 Workstation), a dialog appears that says: "Steam is provided by "(null)". This software source must be enabled to continue installation." Clicking "Enable and Install" on that dialog always causes the Software window to immediately crash & close. Also, when I search for Steam with "pkcon search name steam" in a terminal, it shows 2 Steam packages from rpmfusion, which I have as an enabled software source: Available steam-1.0.0.53-1.fc25.i686 (rpmfusion-nonfree) Installer for the Steam software distribution service Available steam-1.0.0.54-2.fc25.i686 (rpmfusion-nonfree-updates) Installer for the Steam software distribution service Trying to install Steam with "pkcon install steam" fails too, with this message: "Command failed: This tool could not find any available package: No packages were found" Only installing Steam with dnf works. It installs the package from rpmfusion-nonfree-updates. But even after I do that, Software still doesn't show Steam as installed, and the dialog that appears when clicking "Install" says that the software source is named "installed" instead of "(null)". Only after killing the --gapplication-service of gnome-software does Steam appear as installed in Software, with the software source correctly shown as rpmfusion.org. ABRT already posted 2 bugs on Fedora tracking sites for the gnome-software crash. Here they are: ABRT Server: https://retrace.fedoraproject.org/faf/reports/1438998/ Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1400733
Update: on Gnome 3.26 + Fedora 27, it is still not possible to install Steam through Gnome Software, but some things have changed: -The "Enable Third-Party Software Source?" dialog that appears after clicking the "Install..." button now correctly states the correct software source that Steam is provided by, "rpmfusion-nonfree-27", instead of "(null)". -Clicking "Enable and Install" no longer crashes Gnome Software, but instead brings up an error message at the top of the window: "Unable to install Steam as not supported" -It was always possible to install Steam with pkcon after all, by using "pkcon --filter ~arch install steam". By default, "pkcon install" only chooses packages whose architecture matches that of the system. Using "--filter ~arch" tells "pkcon install" to consider packages whose arch does not match that of the system, which is necessary on 64-bit systems for installing packages that do not have 64-bit versions, such as Steam. -After installing Steam with pkcon as described above, Gnome Software seems to think that Steam isn't installed. Steam does appear as an installed app on Software's "Installed" page, but there is a greyed-out "Install..." button next to it, instead of a "Remove" button, and its installed size is not shown. When searching for Steam by typing in the search box, Steam appears without an "Installed" label. When viewing the info page for Steam, the "Updated" date in the "Details" section correctly shows Steam's most recent installation date, but the page has an "Install..." button instead of "Launch" and "Remove" buttons. Clicking "Install..." causes the "Enable Third-Party Software Source?" dialog to appear as before, but clicking "Enable and Install" fails with a different error: "Unable to install Steam [system/package/rpmfusion-nonfree-27/desktop/steam.desktop/*] failed to find rpmfusion-nonfree-27]" This is likely related to Bug #786038, which is about not being able to install software from enabled third-party sources which Gnome Software thinks are disabled. The example given in that bug is with the GStreamer H.264 codec, and at the time of this writing, attempting to install it fails with the exact same error that trying to install Steam fails with: after claiming that the "fedora" software source must be enabled, it errors out with "Unable to install "GStreamer Multimedia Codecs - H.264" as not supported". But in that case, the software source is incorrect, as the codec is actually provided by rpmfusion-free. To dig deeper into this issue, I tried fiddling with the installation of VLC from rpmfusion-free, looking for whether if any of these issues are common to installing any third-party software. With Software running in the background, disabling rpmfusion-free & rpmfusion-free-updates and searching for VLC in a newly-opened Software window lets VLC be installable, but attempting to install it doesn't prompt for enabling any software sources and the installation ultimately fails with this error: "Unable to install VLC Failed to find vlc;3.0.0-0.44.git20171215rc2.fc27;x86_64;rpmfusion-free-updates" This just looks like Software didn't get notified that rpmfusion was disabled, and it tried to install VLC as though it were enabled. A hard-reset of Software lets its installation of VLC prompt for enabling rpmfusion-free-27, but clicking "Enable and Install" doesn't actually enable any of the rpmfusion-free repos and fails with the same error that installing Steam fails with: "Unable to install VLC as not supported" Re-enabling rpmfusion-free & rpmfusion-free-updates without hard-resetting Gnome Software (but closing & re-opening the Software window) fails with the same error that happens when trying to install Steam through Software when it has already been installed with pkcon: "Unable to install VLC [system/package/rpmfusion-free-27/desktop/vlc.desktop/*] failed to find rpmfusion-free-27" Only after hard-resetting Software is it possible for it to install VLC without any errors. Since rpmfusion is enabled, it doesn't prompt for enabling any software sources. From this, it seems that Software has trouble installing software from disabled sources, or from sources that it thinks are disabled for some reason. Maybe since Steam is only available as a 32-bit package, Software doesn't find the right package when it tries to install it, similar to how pkcon needs to have "--filter ~arch" for it to work.
Steam has a different issue. The installation is not working because Steam is a 32bit application and GNOME Software does not support installing multilib packages.
However, the VLC issue really seems similar to Bug #786038.
-- GitLab Migration Automatic Message -- This bug has been migrated to GNOME's GitLab instance and has been closed from further activity. You can subscribe and participate further through the new bug through this link to our GitLab instance: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-software/issues/131.